1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the electronic display of television program guide information on a screen. More specifically, the invention relates to a method of organizing and displaying program information in such a manner as to allow for optimal use of the area available on the television screen.
2. Description of the Related Art
Television programs are distributed to viewers by a variety of broadcasting methods. These methods include traditional analog broadcast television, the upcoming digital broadcast television, cable television (both analog and digital), satellite broadcasting (both analog and digital), as well as other methods. These methods allow channels to be multiplexed and transmitted over a common transmission medium. Since television broadcasting systems can have hundreds of channels, there must be some mechanism for informing the viewer of the content available on the various channels. Electronic television program guides have proven to be an effective means for providing this information.
Program guides for television programming are known in the art. A common method for obtaining television programming information is by consulting paper television programming guides or schedules. This method of disseminating information, however, has limitations. A paper guide may become obsolete or a schedule may change, rendering the paper copy useless. Additionally, the paper schedule may easily be lost.
Electronic program guides have been proposed to alleviate some of the limitations of paper. One example is a cable system that provides a continuous feed of guide information to a dedicated television channel. The channel displays continuous program listings. The continuous nature of the link allows the guide to be updated and reflect current scheduling information. An alternate method of providing guide content is to send it, along with program content, through satellite transmissions to receiving stations.
Previous program guides have been burdened with limitations. Prior television electronic program guides are based around the use of a scheduling grid. This grid typically involves one axis which corresponds to time and another axis which corresponds to transmission channels. At the intersection of each channel and time slot is a xe2x80x9ccellxe2x80x9d which typically displays the title of the program that is being shown on that channel at that time. The problem with this grid-type display format is that when the amount of channels available to the user is more than 15 to 20, it becomes necessary for the viewer to scroll further through the listings, bringing up screen after screen of possible programs and channels. Additionally, if the viewer wishes to look ahead in the schedule the viewer must scroll again to another section of the grid in order to get a complete viewing of programs being broadcast later in the day, week, etc.
The number of television channels and programming alternatives available to the consumer has been increasing dramatically. Under the current grid format, an expanding number of channels are being pushed onto a single screen. The result is that the text of the display becomes so small as to become difficult to read, or the titles and descriptions of the programs become truncated so as to provide very little information to the viewer. Due to the overwhelming amount of information and options, it is necessary to have a method of displaying and sorting all the available programming information for the television viewer in an efficient manner.
Collectively, prior electronic program guide systems are frustrating to the viewer because they do not give the viewer an aesthetically pleasing and intuitive way to view information. Adding a description of the program for each active cell in the grid, or requiring the viewer to go through a hierarchy of screens of categories has not alleviated the problem of giving the viewer an intuitive and informative method of determining what programming is available.
The present invention provides an alternative for presenting television programming information. The information is displayed in spatial arrangement utilizing categories. This can be done through a xe2x80x9ctreexe2x80x9d type or three dimensional type format. Using these methods, a program hierarchy is presented to the viewer, giving a categorical layout of programs and links to switch directly to described programs, or obtain additional information about programs. The programs are spatially arranged on the display and the viewer is given display choices via user-links.
The use of categories and spatial placement of programs in the electronic program guide presents the viewer with an intuitive and informative display. The viewer can make programming selections quickly and receive information about desired program choices immediately using uncomplicated navigational commands. The invention provides an electronic program guide format gives users an intuitive way to decide on a program they wish to view. Because the guide is set up using organizational categories in a spatially outlined fashion, the guide is unobtrusive and immediately understandable.